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Categories: Indian, Vegetarian, Kosher
Neighborhood: Flatiron28th St-Park Ave S (6)
23rd St-Broadway (R, W)
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If I didnt know better, judging from the decor, I would have thought this to be a brunch restaurant. The atmosphere is both contemporary and cozy at the same time. The tables are clean and the staff are really friendly, no grumpy faces here!
The buffet has a selection of about 3-4 vegetarian dishes, roti, salad, various sauces like chutney and yogurt. They were all delicous and not drenched in oil like other places ive been too. Id rate each dish but dont know their names.
You have to walk up to the register to pay after you're done eating.
The buffet lunch is a great deal for 6.95, ill certainly be back.
I went here with a bunch of friends to nurse a craving for chaat and other snack dishes... Unforunately this restaurant is very confused... nothing tastes authentic, especially not the north indian stuff.
The samosa chaat - the sauces were tasty but the crust of the samosa was WAY too thick.
The chole bhature - even though this is inherently an oily dish, the bhaturas were too oily. The chick peas (chole) was very very badly executed - a north indian dish with curry leaves and red chilies? I think not.
Pondicherry masala dosa - this was just straight up bad
Bhel Puri was actually nice
This is more of a miss than a hit.
Yeah their buffet selection might be smaller than some of the other places, but hey it's $6.95 for the weekday lunch which is a great deal for a meal where you can stuff yourself to your heart's content.
The decor is certainly different than the typical Indian restaurants here in Curry Hill. It reminds me of those converted country style coffee shops where all your cutlery, cups and dishware all occupy spots on a hutch to mimic the feel you're in someone's country kitchen.
It's just a weird juxtaposition of Indian buffet dishes and trays inset on an island nook.
Strangely they pull it off just fine, and no that isn't giant braille on the walls. If it were I might guess that it says "this way to the buffet, eat up and be merry"
The owner and his staff are all super friendly as well making this tightly packed operation an enjoyable experience. This place is definitely a place you probably don't want to go to with a group of more than 4 people.
The dishes themselves are all very flavorful and do change from time to time.
I cannot say enough good things about your weekday lunch. Cheap. Delicious. Cheap. Delicious. You get the point.
It has consistently been a very good lunch experience. Good for in-stay and take out. Did I mention it's vegetarian? Thank you for feeding me through many workdays.
This place was pretty good, and the price sure is right, but I wasn't blown away by the food. It's a good possibility that no vegetarian Indian spot will ever live up to Udupi Palace in Berkeley (my first Indian love). But yeah, $6.95, all you can eat, tiny spot so get there early. Enjoy!
Good food at a good price.
Cozy South Indian - Vegetarian Restaurant in Curry Hill
I enjoyed EVERY dish that I have ever had here. My food was not that spicy (would have been nice if it had a little more kick), and unfortunately Srini arrived too late to help me order.
Weekday lunch is great. Weekend Brunch is a STEAL!
Date Rating: 5
Pick up Scale: 2
Strong Suggestion: Come hungry, portions are large.
For a girl who loves her meats, Tiffin Wallah is one of those great places that leaves my stomach and taste buds satisfied sans meat. Congrats, guys.
I think the trick is the super awesome lunch buffet that has a great price (about $7). There's lots of stuff to try, you'll need to go back for seconds. A great group place for lunch too. Highly recommend.
I'm not one to frequent vegetarian restaurants given my carnivorous tendencies, but when my vegetarian ex-roommate came to town and was craving indian food, I gave in to his indian food craving and I'm glad I did. Tiffin Wallah gives a very earthy yet modern feel from the moment you walk in the door with tones of green and brown from the walls to the furniture, with a little green plant as the centerpiece of the table.
Because it was a weekend, we were able to order off their weekend special menu. As appetizers, we ordered the standard samosa (actually not nearly as good as those found elsewhere), pakoras (fresh and good), medu vada (like a spiced savory doughnut, good but not my favorite) and wet gobi manchurian (an indo-chinese dish of batter-fried cauliflower in spicy sauce, hence the "wet"). I love indo-chinese food to begin with, and this was the best gobi manchurian I've ever had.
For the entrees, the chole batura was very tasty, with the batura being freshly fried but not overly done to leave it slightly fluffy on the inside. Their asian fried rice was like nothing we had ever tasted before, using a spice that I still can't put my finger on (not garam masala, which I tend to put in my own indo-chinese fried rice), not greasy and pretty good overall. The kadi paneer masala was a good balance of savory and sweet. Lastly, we also had one of their weekend only masala dosas (the specific name slips my mind) which was only ok, too filled with potatoes and lacking the crisp outer crust of the crepe that I expected.
Last of all, they make fantastic coffee, it's like chai-spiced but in coffee instead of tea. It was without a doubt the best coffee I've ever had, and both my old roommate and his girlfriend agreed that their coffee was excellent, better than their chai. Overall, the food is very good and pretty reasonably priced, we just wound up ordering too much on the menu.
I had no idea this was veggie only when I went- a friend picked it out- and while I was a little confused as I searched the menu for meat- it really didn't matter. It was all delicious, and oh man the size of the dosa is worth it. I've never seen such a large form of bread. My warning- you're going to get a lot of bread, probably, go easy on it- it fills you up fast and you may leave needing at least 2 days to digest like I did.
Don't be afraid to ask the waiters for help- they may seem timid, but they actually proved to be very helpful for us and we were so satisfied!
Excellent onion rava masala dosa! The dosa was large, and the accompanying sambar and chutney were good. The batata vada and samosa were a tad dry. The aloo chaat looked a bit like guacamole, but tasted all right. I'd go back again - the food is good overall, the service is quite fast, staff is friendly, crowd is diverse, and the place is clean.
An absolutely delicious Indian restaurant, and vegetarian to boot. I went with a party of four last weekend, and we enjoyed every dish from beginning to end. The food is flavorful, with more subtle spicing than is offered at some other places (translation: the food's not quite as hot). The spiciness tends to sneak up on you at the very end of a bite, rather than slapping you in the face as the food enters your mouth. It's not an entirely unwelcome change, frankly. The portions are more than reasonably sized; I almost wish we hadn't ordered appetizers. All in all, a very tasty meal at a fantastic price.
the food here is very fresh, light, and hardly a trace of grease. very impressive. but with that comes a shocking blandness. reminds me of the food served in an ayurvedic hospital in kerala - very healthy and light.
i asked for spicy and it wasn't even mild by my standards. i would be afraid to order medium - might then taste like a macrobitoic dish. aloo matar and gobi masala all should be relatively spicy but not. uttapam and dosa are great but the chutneys were again so mild. this is probably a great place to bring someone with a mild palate but not for me - no thanks. keep up the good work though, nyc needs specialization niche marketing.
I haven't had too much experience with dosas, but I love theirs, the filling is tasty and not too dry (fresh green peas in the potatoes!). They won me over after i dared to give it a 2nd chance; I did not like my first dosa (bland and dry) at another NYC south Indian restaurant many years ago.
I also love how they have a fancy tiled sink in the restaurant where you can wash your hands without having to wait in line for the bathroom or open any doors! All restaurants should have this -- what a terrific idea!!!
$7.50 for a perfectly-spiced, fresh-tasting, all-you-can buffet that has different entrees each day and two types of rice and dosa? I'll be coming back.
A budget tip: you'll get burned on ordering drinks ($2 for a can of soda) so consider bringing your own.
So,
With a hankering for Indian but having already had Haandi earlier in the week, I thought going vegetarian Indian would qualify as a "healthy" Friday lunch (Hey, it's called the Nile and it's a river in Egypt) .
As I walked in, a couple of the waiters waived me to the back. I guess I must have had my "I'm hungry and I have to get back to the office" look b/c without any words from me, one waiter gestured/shouted to another and in two split seconds, I had a plastic bag with several food containers and aluminum foil as well as plastic ware. I was impressed. They obviously have this system down pat.
At first disoriented as to where the line began, I bypassed the line and started scooping food into my food container strategically putting two vegetables (non-saucy) in one of the compartment of the main container and putting the vegetable curry in another compartment. At this point, I realized my faux pas of having jumped in line and went back in line. I threw a chapatha and two uttapams into the foil and wrapped it up. I had left the largest compartment for the two types of rice. And while there was another container for salad (though I guess I could have fit rice in it), I knew there was already so much food, I wouldn't touch any salad. I did load the smaller container with the fruit salad for dessert though.
Maybe, if you eat in, it's $6 for the buffet but for take out lunch buffet, it's a $7.50. But as there was enough food for me to have both lunch and dinner, it was still a bargain.
Now, for review of the food itself..
- Gobi masala - vegetable curry with lots of cauliflower, plenty of cream and spices that were so right on that I could eat it all day long
- spinach (or maybe green leaf vegetable) with paneer and onions - so, so good and so simple
- mixed bean stew - who needs meat when you've got beans?
- pulav - delicious and worth every extra calorie over the basmati
- basmati - cooked perfectly and I couldn't ask for more.
- chapathi - slightly too dry for me (I've never been a fan though)
- veggie uttapam - the indian cousin to Chinese rice cakes - can't go wrong here.
I'm thinking about converting to Tiffin Wallahism. Seriously.
Elliot and I met up early one evening around the corner from this as I wanted to try another Indian… Read more »
Definitely one of the most authentic Indian restaurants in the city - the best chapati, rice and lentils!!!
The offerings change daily and is perfect for lunch or dinner.
Plus - the staff is really friendly and the price is unbeatable.
After discovering this place, I go for lunch at least twice a week.
I think it may have been because I was expecting too much, but my experience at this seemingly legendary vegetarian South Indian lunch buffet wasn't all that I expected. I'm not sure if they always have the same variety but when I visited there was: a chickpea curry, a lentil curry, a beet & potato ensemble, a vegetable stoup, and a couple types of pancakes.
I really liked the beet & potato ensemble but thought it needed some more potatoes to balance out the sweetness of the beets. I also enjoyed the pancakes, especially the thin semi-chewy one, but as for the rest I was a bit disappointed. Granted this is South Indian food, not the usual curry-laden Indian restaurants I was used to but still after hearing that this place would make you forget you were eating vegetarian, I really didn't feel that level of adoration for this restaurant. Don't get me wrong if I had gone in there with no expectations, $6.95 for that variety of food would've been a better than acceptable deal, but it was just okay for me all things considered.
Would probably go back to try a la carte ordering but not again for the weekday lunch buffet.
I just ate at Tiffin Wallah for a holistic counseling meeting. I was wary of having any of the food but for me, having an Indian meal at an Indian restaurant (as opposed to home cooked Indian which I have daily for lunch) is a curious treat.
I end up disappointed by the food items usually because they tend to be too dry, too uninteresting and uninspired. But today was different. Today, I had the Gobi Masala - a gravy laden cauliflower dish with ginger, spices and green chilis.
I ordered it Jain - which is without onions and garlic.
Accompanied it with Chappati which is whole wheat flat bread made in oil instead of ghee, so it's vegan. The waiters told us that if we want no oil either, we should go for the Phulkaa, but my holistic counselor and I were bent on the Chappati.
It was incredible. The flavor was perfect and they had paid heed to my 'extra spicy' request. Wonderful meal in a slightly noisy but bearable lunch crowd environment.
For a hungry Jain on a wintry December in New York City who has forgotten his lunch at home, the… Read more »
So I don't have the luxury of partaking in Tiffin Wallah's well priced lunch special, but I still find it fantastic.
Everything is beautifully prepared and equally tasty - especially the rava dosa with gunpowder. The chas (like a spicy/salty lassi) although unusual, is quite warming to soul. Can't wait to go back.
I've tried a lot of the south Indian restaurants near my office, and, so far, this one is my favorite. The atmosphere is similar to many of the other restaurants, but is slightly more "cutesy." Staff are friendly even if their English isn't always on par. The dosa, vada, chaat, chutney were all delicious...I'm not a native but I spent a couple months in south India and this place seemed pretty authentic and tasty to me. The crowd is a mix between Indians and "foreigners." Tiffin Wallah is a great deal and a treat for vegetarians. One caveat is that I would avoid ordering from the north Indian part of the menu--my friend once did and it was only so-so. I don't know why these places even bother offering items they aren't exceptional at making.
HAHAHA!! I used to work nearby and always had the $7.50 lunch buffet each day.
I used to finish off 3 plates before going back to work. Of course, the owner kinda gave me the look each time I went back for more xD
One side of me feel sorry for eating the crap out of their buffet. Because the taste and quality of food was definitely worth twice or thrice of what I paid. (Not to mention 3 plates of it LOL)
Mind you, it's all vegetarian. And it just may give you the runs the next day if your stomach isn't used to all that foreign spice.
But sooooo worth it!!!
P.S. Their regular menu price hikes upto something like $12 per appetizer. So make sure you catch the lunch deal from 12pm-3pm!
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P.P.S. Without the lunch buffet the Restaurant would score 4 out of 5.
But I'm giving it 5 out of 5. I'm considering it karma for abusing their food and services for all those months (I only worked around the area for 3 months anyway ;P)
I never tried their lunch special, but I tried other dishes. It was satisfactory.
I am going back for sure when I am around Curry hill.
They have good dosas, which are fun because they're huge (not volume-wise but area-wise). My friend and I each got one and they were both good and reasonably priced ($9 before tax and tip).
The service was friendly, though it can also be loud (we were there on a Friday night).
Maybe I'm biased because I work around the corner and eat the lunch buffet quite frequently, but I have to say, this is the best deal in the area.
Money aside, the food is fantastic! I've never once had a bad meal. The buffet is great. Always a good variety, fresh, hot food. The service doesn't really exist, but that doesn't matter because you don't need interaction when eating at a buffet, anyway.
I'm not a vegetarian, a vegan, in fact, I love meat... but this place can't be beat, even for a meat-eating machine.
This place is amazing. While visiting NYC I went on the internet at a guest house that I was staying in Harlem in search of some restaurants. Somehow I found this place and read about the buffet special so I thought I would give it a try not expecting much. Little did I know how fabulous this place is and was really glad I found this gem despite not being from NYC. I ended up going here with a friend twice and both times we gorged ourselves in the buffet which was only $6 which is the greatest bang for the buck that I've seen. We were full for almost the entire day both days after the meal. The food at the buffet was amazing and had a wide selection back when I went and both times they had a different selection of foods which gave it much variety. If I lived in NYC I would be heading down to this place often. When I come back to NYC again I will definitely stop by this place. I just wish I could have went here more often but due to the schedule I couldn't. The food left a lasting impression on me.
Guess there a place for everyone (and count me out)
Way Too Salty - Crazy Energy
BFF text: Wanna meet lunch tiffin wallah veg buffet $6?
28th and Lex
Me: You pAying? I'm there!
This is very unlike him as he's extremely busy.... so I jumped to the invite. Although, in my head I'm thinking of Baoguette but hey that would be rude.
Once we arrived it was pure chaos. For some reason everyone from the patrons to the waiters where in a frenzy "In a Hurry to talk, eat and leave"
Not pleasant at all.
Food was terrible. (which now $6.95) Each of the Vegetable dishes Did Not shine here... Lentils, peas, tomatoes, and even rice was a miss.
Coconut chutney -watered down, Mango chutney -salty so forget it, scallion rounds -greasy, dosa -heavy and milky dessert -grossly sweet.
Even the breathe candies that dispensed from a bird feeder was stale.
Next time Just go with your 1st thought :
Baoguette would have been the Winner for sure!
Crossing off TW -once for dinner and now lunch.
Can we say cheap? I thought that it was the end of cheap food in Manhattan... especially for a restaurant that looked kind of trendy (aka NOT a hole in the wall). This place is vegetarian.. but if you're into delicious traditional Southern Indian food.. you won't mind. It's not meant to be a fusion place... or a new age place.. just plain delicious Indian food.
Huge paper masala dosas.. delicious sambar... the onion rava dosas is really good... and the chana chaat is a refreshing dish. Good deal on alcohol as well. Cute date place.. without breaking the bank.
I would stay away from the gobi masala or benghan bartha... not made the same way that I am used to. A little too sour or tomatoey for me.
Good times with good friends at tiffinwallah..
Their rava dosas, idli's, sambhar, chutney, etc waere fantastic. It's not too pricey...it was good veggie food, right up my alley!
GREAT veg indian in nyc .. I havent been to too many other vegetarian/vegan/kosher indian restaurants in manhattan but compared to the ones I have been at elsewhere, Tiffin Wallah is really up at the top of my charts ..
Our first time in - we both had a different Thali - a nice sampler of all sorts of things that we shared - i think between the two we had 14 different things, and everything here was very good. the dosa all looked very good and we want to try one next time.. Dining in, it was a little close-quartered, but in NYC thats not really too bad of a thing. It was a nice, fun atmosphere and the staff was quick with taking our order and bringing the food to us ..
We Definitely will be coming back to Tiffin Wallah . .
While authenticity is toned down here to reach a broader audience, you'll enjoy the quality ingredients and bold flavors. I strongly recommend the weekday lunch all you can eat buffet where you can choose from 5 dishes, rice, bread, pickled vegetables, as well as traditional Indian accompaniments.
When you see a line extending all the way out the door during a weekday lunch hour, you know it's the real deal. I've never seen so many people go nuts over Indian food, not even on Curry Row 6th St. on the Lower East Side.
The $6.95 all you can eat lunch buffet is a steal considering the selections are top quality, bold in exotic spicy flavors, clean and carefully koshered. There is a large concentration of Indian eateries in the area that offer buffets as low as $6, but nearly all of them were surprisingly empty at the time.
My office is only 5 blocks away and I do try to arrive 15 minutes early before it gets crowded by 12pm. Service is often friendly and the owner is personable, but most of the time customers help themselves to the servings. I tend to stack up platefuls of the Kashmiri Pulav Basmati rice with fruits, nuts, saffron, rose, and cream sauce. I love the aroma of this dish and the creative mix of ingredients. One of my favorites (mostly desserts) are the masala spiced cashew nuts and the Kheer rice pudding.
I do get full very easily after cleaning off one plate and it's difficult to pile on for seconds. Sometimes I do get sick from Indian food (stomach related), but it has never been the case here. Maybe the kosher process had something to do with it?
Learning from my incident at Saravana Bhavan, I decided to check with one of my Indian colleagues what to order at Tiffin Wallah and was given the thumbs up for the behl poori and the paper dosai. I have never had paper dosai and was definitely up for it. Except, I wasn't exactly hungry that night and since neither item could keep (aka take-out or doggie bag options eliminated), I thought I'd have to choose only one but not the other. Of course, for those who know me well, I hate to give up on something... so I just went ahead with the order of both.
The behl poori was deeelicious. It reminded me of a spicy salsa mix, There are tomatoes, onion, puffed rice and spices all mixed in a bowl... perhaps avocado(?) even as there was something creamy about it that made it seem like it was a bowl of delicious guac (almost!)
Then came the paper dosai (which I must admit was reaonably priced at $7). The thing was HUGE, and I was waiting to see if it would hit the wall adjacent to the table when the waiter set it down. He was pretty nimble I must say for it fit just nicely on the tabletop. At this point, I'll have to admit that I'm not a paper dosai fan. Don't get me wrong, the paper dosai was good, except I much prefer the doughy types of dosai and got sick of the paper dosai after a bit (too much to be had for one).
The atmosphere here was better than Saravana Bhavan. At SB, I feel like I was having a meal at a soup kitchen, with water and food served in metal cups and plates. Also I thought that $10 for a dosai at SB was rather steep. Here at Tiffin, they have pretty nice water glasses and the refills were pretty constant. I'd say that's pretty good service and decor for Curry Hill.
Inexpensive but high quality vegetarian Indian food. The ambiance is casual, but also pleasant and relaxing. Although the restaurant gets very busy, it's set up so that it's not cramped.
The food is very good. I've enjoyed both the dinner as well as the Lunch buffet.
I recommend the "Assorted Tiffin for Two" which is a sampler of appetizers and the dosas, a south Indian style savory crepe. The Rava masala dosa is my favorite.
This place is the mega jam. My wife and I had the Biryani, Sukhi Bhaji, Mysore Masala, and Pakora.
I was a little hesitant to order the Biryani because it sticks out a bit on the primarily Southern Indian menu, but it was very good and a lot different than others I've had in the past. Very spiceful without being too hot and much less focused on the taste of raisins. The Sukhi Bhaji was wonderful, great spiciness and the potatoes cooked to a happy medium between dry and slightly mushy. Of course, the Mysore Masala was massive and practically a meal in and of itself. The only thing that left me wanting were the Pakoras which I felt hadn't cooked quite long enough.
Obviously Tiffin Wallah is a great place if you're a vegetarian, but it's also a great vegan spot. Every dish on the menu is clearly marked as having dairy or being spicy and somewhere around 1/2 - 2/3 of the items are vegan.
The quality of the ingredients seems much higher than at many other Indian restaurants. This is especially impressive because almost everything on the menu is less than $10 (our meal plus a big bottle of Taj Mahal was only $40 before tip!)
I am still stuffed 14 hours after eating there and I am impatiently waiting for the little hand on the clock to point to 12 again so I can dig into the leftovers for lunch!
First dosa I have ever had in Manhattan. I have had plenty of dosas in Edison, NJ near oak tree lane - a street in NJ known in India. This dosa did not seem traditional but that is ok by me. It was excellent. It was more like a burrito...or four sandwiches and it was delicious.
Super good food! Fresh ingredients, well-spiced and flavored, good service, delicious masala chai & rice pudding, and not too expensive! There are so many options on this menu that I could come here tons of times and never have the same thing twice (kind of a rarity for being vegetarian).
Plus, if you go on your birthday with three other people, your meal is free! Pretty awesome.
Yeah, the food is good. Yeah, the place is cramped like my style after you tell me to sleep on the couch. Yeah, it's not expensive.
One thing, though. That menu is way too fucking long. Meant in both ways.
Two things, though. Waiters moving through a restaurant via one path should not create a wind current.
I'd say this is a glorified takeout with above-tatters ingredients. Superb breads, damn good tomato soups. The saag wasn't amazing. Too sweet. My smile saaged.
They would have gotten 4 stars if I didn't feel so rushed out of there. I'm all about promptness of clearing plates and keeping the restaurant clean, but as we stood up we were surrounded by three busboys and as we put our jackets on they descended upon the table, and before we were finished gathering our things they had pushed us away from the table in order to wipe it off and get rid of any evidence that the table had been used. Mind you, the restaurant was half full. There wasn't even a wait. It was very rude and annoying.
Our waitress had no idea about beer or wine and she spoke just above a whisper. We had to remind them twice about two dishes that we ordered.
The more I write, the less impressed I am...hmm...
The food was delicious, came out quickly, and was rich in flavor.
They do have a $6 lunch buffet which might explain the streamline service.
My one tiny tiny complaint is that the food is not as spicy as I like Indian food. BUT this complaint is so small, I couldn't justify giving them 4 stars instead of 5. The waitstaff is friendly, informative, and speedy. The food is... amazing.
It's doughy,
savory,
authentic (so I'm told),
flavorful (best samosas I've had in New York),
filling (I always take food home),
inexpensive (never spent more that $13, with tax and tip)
free if it's your birthday and you bring 3 friends!!
I actually did that-- I brought 4 friends on my birthday because it fell on (bummer) a Wednesday, and my appetizer, meal and dessert were all free! You have to make reservations and show your ID, but it's a great situation, especially if you get uncomfortable when people pay for you.
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